Tustin’s McCluskey Overcomes Adversity With Best Game Plan : Coach of the year: After leading Tillers to two Southern Section championship games, he finally wins state title.

Tom McCluskey, who led Tustin High School to the State Division II boys’ championship with his fiery style of coaching, is The Times’ Orange County coach of the year for 1991.

McCluskey, 29, led Tustin to a 30-4 record and climaxed a banner year by defeating Danville San Ramon Valley, 66-54, in the State championship game Saturday at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

McCluskey has an 87-32 record in four seasons at Tustin and has led the Tillers to two Southern Section championship games. Tustin defeated J.W. North of Riverside, 70-42, in the Division II-AA title game and was the second-seeded team in the Southern California Division II regionals.

Tustin defeated Visalia Redwood, 91-49, and Escondido San Pasqual, 85-61, to set up a showdown with the state’s top-ranked Division II team, Artesia, in the regional championship.

McCluskey’s finest hour came in a 51-36 upset in that game, in which he orchestrated a third-quarter offensive attack that helped Tustin build an eight-point lead and then ordered his team into a delay game that thoroughly frustrated Artesia.

Artesia had superior talent and at least a three-inch height advantage at every position, but Tustin’s trademark pressure defense was the difference.

McCluskey attended Redlands High and Saddleback College, where he played for Bill Mulligan before Mulligan moved on to UC Irvine. He transferred to Penn State and was the captain of the team in his senior year.

He coached at Fontana for three seasons and led the Steelers to a 24-4 record in his final season in 1986-87 with current University of Arizona star Sean Rooks leading the team. He left Fontana’s football factory and came to Tustin, where he led the Tillers to the section 3-A division title game in his first season in 1987-88.

McCluskey, who has been selected to coach the South team in the 26th Orange County all-star basketball game next month at Saddleback College, believes in on-the-job training.

“Coaching is not something you can learn by going to a clinic where someone shows you X’s and O’s,” he said. “You might get ideas that way, but to learn to coach, you have to coach, you have to be out there every day doing it. Every day on the floor, I’m in the class.”